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Specifications:

Here’s The Conclusion of:

• Hothardware-

  
  

  Performance Summary: Summarizing the performance of NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 cards is quite easy.  The GeForce GTX 260’s overall performance falls somewhere in between the single-GPU based GeForce 9800 GTX and dual-GPU powered GeForce 9800 GX2, and it is usually faster than the dual-GPU powered Radeon HD 3870 X2 as well.  The flagship GeForce GTX 280, however, was overall  the fastest single graphics card we have ever tested.  There were a couple of instances when the GeForce 9800 GX2 pulled ahead of the GTX 280, but in the vast majority of our testing, no other single graphics card could match the performance of the GeForce GTX 280.

  
   
  

   

  NVIDIA has done it again and raised the bar for that can be considered an ultra high-end GPU.  The GT200 series GPU at the heart of the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 offers more brute force performance than anything else to come before it.  Though producing such a massive GPU, does have its drawbacks, which are evident when you consider its die size and when looking at power consumption characteristics, the fact remains NVIDIA has produced the most powerful and fastest graphics card we have ever tested - yet again.

  Suggested retail pricing for the GeForce GTX 280 is set at $649 and the GeForce GTX 260 checks in at a more palatable $399.  NVIDIA has informed is that the GeForce GTX 280 will be available in quantity tomorrow ( June 17th) and the GeForce GTX 260 is slated to arrive Thursday of next week, on June 26.  At those prices, the GeForce GTX series does not come cheap.  But enthusiasts have always had to “pay to play” so to speak.  We suspect there may be some wiggle room in these prices, however, as partners push clock speeds higher than NVIDIA’s reference specifications and as ATI pushes out their next-gen GPU architecture, which is rumored to offer strong performance and a relatively low price point.  As usual, we’ll know more in the coming weeks.

  For now though, NVIDIA has further cemented their position atop the 3D graphics food chain.   They have executed once again with a new line of graphics cards that not only offer significantly higher frame rates, but large performance gains for gamers, game developers and researchers looking to exploit both GPU and GPGPU capabilities of NVIDIA’s massive new multi-purpose graphics and compute engine.

  

   

  Extreme Performance PhysX Support Coming Large Frame Buffers Low Idle Power Consumption	High Peak Power Consumption Expensive Can Be Somewhat Loud

• AnandTech- There’s no question that NVIDIA has built a very impressive chip with the GT200. As the largest microprocessor we’ve ever reviewed, NVIDIA has packed an unreal amount of computational horsepower into the GT200. What’s even more impressive is that we can fully expect NVIDIA to double transistor count once again in about 18 months, and once more we’ll be in this position of complete awe of what can be done. We’re a little over a decade away from being able to render and display images that would be nearly indistinguishable from reality, and it’s going to take massive GPUs like the GT200 to get us there.Interestingly, though, AMD has decided to make public its decision to go in the opposite direction. No more will ATI be pushing as many transistors as possible into giant packages in order to do battle with NVIDIA for the coveted “halo” product that inspires the masses to think an entire company is better because they made the fastest possible thing regardless of value. The new direction ATI will go in will be one that it kind of stumbled inadvertently into: providing midrange cards that offer as high a performance per dollar as possible.With AMD dropping out of the high end single-GPU space (they will still compete with multiGPU solutions), NVIDIA will be left all alone with top performance for the forseable future. But as we saw from our benchmarks, that doesn’t always work out quite like we would expect.There’s another very important aspect of GT200 that’s worth considering: a die-shrunk, higher clocked version of GT200 will eventually compete with Intel’s Larrabee GPU. The GT200 is big enough that it could easily smuggle a Penryn into your system without you noticing, which despite being hilarious also highlights a very important point: NVIDIA could easily toss a high performance general purpose sequential microprocessor on its GPUs if it wanted to. At the same time, if NVIDIA can build a 1.4 billion transistor chip that’s nearly 6x the size of Penryn, so can Intel - the difference being that Intel already has the high performance, general purpose, sequential microprocessor that it could integrate alongside a highly parallel GPU workhorse. While Intel has remained relatively quiet on Larrabee as of late, NVIDIA’s increased aggressiveness towards its Santa Clara neighbors is making more sense every day.

  We already know that Larrabee will be built on Intel’s 45nm process, but given the level of performance it will have to compete with, it wouldn’t be too far fetched for Larrabee to be Intel’s first 1 - 2 billion transistor microprocessor for use in a desktop machine (Nehalem is only 781M transistors).

  Intel had better keep an eye on NVIDIA as the GT200 cements its leadership position in the GPU market. NVIDIA hand designed the logic that went into much of the GT200 and managed to produce it without investing in a single fab, that is a scary combination for Intel to go after. It’s not to say that Intel couldn’t out engineer NVIDIA here, but it’s just going to be a challenging competition.

  NVIDIA has entered a new realm with the GT200, producing a world class microprocessor that is powerful enough to appear on even Intel’s radar. If NVIDIA had the ability to enable GPU acceleration in more applications, faster, then it would actually be able to give Intel a tough time before Larrabee. Fortunately for Intel, NVIDIA is still just getting started on moving into the compute space.

  But then we have the question of whether or not you should buy one of these things. As impressive as the GT200 is, the GeForce GTX 280 is simply overpriced for the performance it delivers. It is NVIDIA’s fastest single-card, single-GPU solution, but for $150 less than a GTX 280 you get a faster graphics card with NVIDIA’s own GeForce 9800 GX2. The obvious downside to the GX2 over the GTX 280 is that it is a multi-GPU card and there are going to be some situations where it doesn’t scale well, but overall it is a far better buy than the GTX 280.

  Even looking to the comparison of four and two card SLI, the GTX 280 doesn’t deliver $300 more in value today. NVIDIA’s position is that in the future games will have higher compute and bandwidth requirements and that the GTX 280 will have more logevity. While that may or may not be true depending on what actually happens in the industry, we can’t recommend something based on possible future performance. It just doesn’t make sense to buy something today that won’t give you better performance on the software that’s currently available. Especially when it costs so much more than a faster solution.

  The GeForce GTX 260 is a bit more reasonable. At $400 it is generally equal to if not faster than the Radeon HD 3870 X2, and with no other NVIDIA cards occupying the $400 pricepoint it is without a competitor within its own family. Unfortunately, 8800 GT SLI is much cheaper and many people already have an 8800 GT they could augment.

  The availability of cheaper faster alternatives to GT200 hardware is quite dangerous for NVIDIA, as value does count for quite a lot even at the high end. And an overpriced high end card is only really attractive if it’s actually the fastest thing out there.

  But maybe with the lowered high end threat from AMD, NVIDIA has decided to make a gutsy move by positioning its hardware such that multiGPU solutions do have higher value than single GPU solutions. Maybe this is all just a really good way to sell more SLI motherboards.

• InsideHW- When it comes to performances nVIDIA is once again „the king of the hill“. Every game we tried was playable even at largest resolutions like 2560×1560 with AA and AF. Everything except of course, Crysis which couldn’t run perfectly smoth on maximum resolution with AA and AF enabled. But every other game isn’t a problem for GTX280. The final verdict for this card is simple: it’s new, it’s no doubt the best SingleGPU card today, and it will satisfy even the most hardcore gamers for whom this card is intended for. You are probably wondering when will we explain the part with G70 and 71? Well, if you want the best graphics card right now, and you have enough money (around 550€) you should go and buy nVIDIA GeForce GTX280. If you are one of those who will find this product to expensive and wont buy it just because of that (despite you actualy can) rest assured that nVIDIA GeForce GTX280 is geat product. Of course you can always wait for „G71“ (as it was case with G70) version of GTX280 that will be produced in smaller production process, with less power consumption and lower price.

 

For reviews from all other sites from all over the internet check out these links:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
@ AnandTech
@ TweakTown
@ InsideHW
@ Guru3D
@ Elite Bastards
@ Hardware Secrets
@ Hot Hardware
@ Chile Hardware
@ Driver Heaven
@ Hardware Canucks
@ Overclockers Club
@ MADBOXPC
@ The Tech Report
@ t-break
@ Benchmark Reviews
@ Technic3D
@ Legit Reviews